Grammar Terms - Appositives

A noun or pronoun that follows another noun or pronoun to identify or explain it.

Example: Her sister Nancy was a year older.

Grammar Terms - Dialects

Dialects are varieties of a native language.

Example: People from Georgia speak a different dialect of English than Montanans do.

Parts of Speech - Adjectives

A word used to modify (tell more about) a nounor a pronoun.

Example: Paris is wonderful in the spring.

Parts of Speech - Adverbs

A word used to modify a verb, an adjective, oranother adverb.

Example: Marian Anderson sang beautifully.

Parts of Speech - Conjunctions

A word that joins words or groups of words.

Example: Pearl Buck and Selma Lagerlof won the Nobel Prize.

AND

No one knows when opportunity will knock.

Two main types: Coordinating and subordinating.

Parts of Speech - Interjections

A word that expresses emotion and has nogrammatical relation to other words in the sentence.

Example: Help! Ouch! Ah! Well!

Parts of Speech - Nouns

A word used to name a person, place, thing, orIdea.

Example: The earthen dam was in danger of collapsing.

They may be classified as proper – President Obama, common - teacher, abstract - dream, concrete - cement , and collective - team.

Parts of Speech - Prepositions

A word used to show the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to some other word in the sentence.

Alternative definition: Anywhere a cat may go: in,out, under, over, beneath, on top of, after, around,beside, etc.

Example: Joan walked to her aunt’s house.

Parts of Speech - Pronouns

Words used in place of one or more nouns.

Example: Jack burned himself during the experiment.

Parts of Speech - Verbs

A word that expresses action or otherwise helps to make a statement.

Example: The rider lost her stirrups.

Verbs are primarily action verbs or linking verbs.

Sentences - Clause

A group of words containing a subject and a predicate and used as part of the sentence.

Note: An independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as asentence.

Note: A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. They are always joined in some way to a dependent class.

Sentences - Complex

A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Example: The alarm blasted while the firemen were away from the station.

OR

While the firemen were away from the station, thealarm blasted.

Sentences - Compound

A sentence with at least two independent clausesjoined by one or more conjunctions.

Example: The Buffalo Bills beat the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts defeated the San Francisco ’49ers.

Sentences – Compound-Complex

A sentence with at least two independent clausesand at least one dependent clause.

Example: The Buffalo Bills beat the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts defeated the San Francisco ’49ers while I made a three foot longsubmarine sandwich.

Sentences - Fragment

A group of words that does not express a complete thought. It cannot stand alone as a sentence.

Example: A blue haze setting over the rooftops…

Sentences - Phrase

A group of related words used as a single part of speech and not containing a verb and its subject (It’s missing a verb or subject).

Example: Inside the house (a prepositional Phrase).

Sentences – Run On

When one or more sentences runs on into the second or subsequent sentence. Run ons are caused by using commas between sentences where there should be end punctuation.

Example: The meeting seemed to last for hours, Nothing was accomplished.

Avoid run-on sentences. Do not use a commabetween sentences. Do not omit punctuation at the end of a sentence.

Sentences - Sentence

A group of words expressing a complete thought.

Example: The victorious team remained calm.

Sentences - Simple

The most basic of all sentences. It is composed of one independent clause (a simple subject and a simple predicate) and expresses a complete thought. simple predicateExample: The dog howled. simple subject